Category Archives: ArcGIS Step by Step

Have you been meaning to try out the ArcMap Python window, but just aren’t sure how to start? Well, the five code snippets below are a great tool to familiarize yourself with the Python window and the arcpy.mapping module. Make a copy of an MXD file and move it somewhere to test out these snippets. You’ll soon see how useful a few Python tricks can be for map management tasks.

This is the second post in a three-part series on working with temporal data in ArcGIS.

In the previous post, we covered how to add data to ArcGIS Pro, prepare it for your project needs, time-enable the layer, then share the layer as a time-enabled web layer to an ArcGIS Online organizational site.

This post takes you through the steps to create a web map featuring the time-enabled web layer. The third post shows how to create a story map that features the web map.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Go to www.arcgis.com and sign in to your ArcGIS Online organizational account.

In My Content, right-click the web layer and add it to a new map.

You can immediately see that the web layer is time-enabled because a time slider displays at the bottom of the map viewer. Continue reading →

This is the first post in a three-part series on visualizing and sharing temporal data using ArcGIS. In this post, learn how to add data to ArcGIS Pro, prepare it for visualization, and share it to ArcGIS Online.

This blog’s most popular post ever is about visualizing temporal data on a map. The ArcMap workflow described in that post is still valid. Five and a half years later, though, we have a tightly integrated platform and new options. An exciting new desktop app. Easy ways to share GIS-driven insights with a wide audience.

It’s time to give that post a modern refresh. We’ll use the same scenario as the original post: piracy incidents in and around the Gulf of Aden. Continue reading →

For millions of homework- and test-weary youth in the USA, “June” is a magic word. It conjures the end of the school year and the start of sublime summer vacation. June is the month that students—laggards and high achievers alike—anticipate with glee. Not to mention teachers.

For non-teaching working adults, though, June is a continuation of routine—projects, meetings, to-do lists, and deadlines. For us, work doesn’t stop in June. And neither should learning.

That’s why we decided to share a different ArcGIS tip every day in June, thirty tips in all. We culled product documentation, GeoNet forums, blogs, and brains around the Esri landscape for practical info, tips, and tricks ArcGIS users can apply immediately. Continue reading →

There are many ways GIS professionals can get their work done these days. Technology is providing new capabilities and, at the same time, the user experience is becoming simpler, more intuitive, and integrated. Case in point: ArcGIS for Desktop, which now includes ArcGIS Pro and an ArcGIS Online organizational subscription.

ArcGIS Pro is associated with an ArcGIS Online organization and integration is built into the interface. You can directly publish content you create in ArcGIS Pro to the organization and easily grab content from ArcGIS Online to support mapping and analysis projects. Continue reading →

Note: Membership in an ArcGIS Online organization is required to use ArcGIS Pro. Your organizational administrator will need to provision you with an ArcGIS Pro license.

Starter Course: The Interface

When opening their first ArcGIS Pro project, ArcMap users may experience something akin to a new-house sensation. Familiar furniture fills the rooms, but the new space has cast the pieces in an exotic light. Continue reading →

Given that technology—the Internet, e-commerce, smartphones, the behemoth that is social media—has dramatically changed consumer and personal behavior over the last decade, it’s no surprise our professional lives have evolved. For many of us, what we do at work and how we do our work have changed a great deal.

At the same time, more and more organizational leaders have grasped the business value of getting geospatial content out of a department silo and into the hands of knowledge workers using ArcGIS Online and a variety of enterprise applications.

As a result, many GIS professionals are being asked to share. Of course, the profession as a whole is a generous lot, so sharing itself is nothing new. What’s new is the ease with which things can be shared.

The ArcGIS Online organization has become an integrated content platform that supports enterprise GIS workflows and the information needs of both GIS and non-GIS professionals, collaborative working groups, and the public.

When there are many potential content consumers, the question of what to share needs to be carefully considered. If you’re in the process of crafting a sharing strategy for your ArcGIS Online organization (or on-premise portal), here are three tips to help the process along.

This is the third post in a three-part series on creating geoprocessing models in ArcGIS.

If you’ve read the previous posts in this series, you’ve got modeling basics down and you know how to add model parameters to support easy reuse and scenario testing. In this post, you’ll learn some techniques to do more with less—effort, that is. Continue reading →

This is the second post in a three-part series on creating geoprocessing models in ArcGIS.

ModelBuilder 101 covered five steps to create a basic model. One of the main advantages of building a model is the ability to quickly test multiple scenarios. This post shows how to support scenario testing when a model is run as a tool.

Confused about what running a model as a tool means? In the ModelBuilder application a model appears as a visual diagram. Outside of ModelBuilder you can run a model from a tool dialog box (double-click the model in the ArcMap Catalog window).

In ModelBuilder, you can open any tool, change its settings, and quickly run the model again to explore alternative scenarios. That’s great, but convenience matters too. When running a model as a tool, you can explore alternative scenarios by changing model parameters—all at once, in one place. Let’s talk the P-word. Continue reading →